1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to telecommunications systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for re-routing calls in a packet network during failures is described.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, telecommunications systems provide the ability for two or more people or machines (e.g., computerized or other electronic devices) to communicate with each other. A telecommunications system may include various networks for facilitating communication that may be generally organized into packet networks and circuit-switched networks. Exemplary packet networks include internet protocol (IP) networks, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks, frame-relay networks, and the like. An exemplary circuit-switched network includes a plain old telephone system (POTS), such as the publicly switched telephone network (PSTN).
Telephony service providers typically offer services to enterprises that access the services through nodal endpoints on the customer premises. Presently, when these nodal endpoints experience outages (i.e., when the nodal endpoints fail), calls to these endpoints are blocked. These calls are blocked regardless of the existence of alternative active endpoints for reaching the user of the failed device. Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a method and apparatus that re-routes calls in a packet network during failures.